Spatial Planning for Agro-Heritage Tourism: Integrating Spatial Characteristics and Stakeholder Perspectives in Kerala

Abstract

Agro-heritage tourism is a form of tourism centered on traditional agricultural landscapes, local foods, and rural cultural practices. Such type of agricultural landscapes is globally recognized under GIAHS initiative by FAO. Kerala’s agricultural landscapes are deeply rooted in traditional knowledge systems, biodiversity, and unique cultural practices, providing strong potential for the development of agro-heritage tourism as a sustainable tourism model. Despite Kerala’s rich heritage value, agro-heritage tourism in Kerala remains underdeveloped due to limited integration between the agriculture, culture, and tourism sectors. Existing agricultural landscapes also lack coordinated spatial planning, adequate infrastructure, stakeholder alignment, and strategic marketing frameworks essential for sustainable tourism development. Addressing this gap, the study first identifies the importance and tourism potential of Kerala’s agricultural heritage systems and examines how spatial factors support agro-heritage tourism and how stakeholder perspectives contribute to community well-being and tourism development. Using the spatial and stakeholder dimensions, the study reviewed international best-practice and analysed Kerala’s own agro-heritage potential, along with relevant state policies and planning frameworks. Based on these analyses, the study developed a multidimensional indicator framework integrating spatial and stakeholder dimensions to guide Panchayats and regional planning bodies in promoting sustainable agro-heritage tourism development in Kerala.

Introduction

Kerala’s Agro-Heritage Tourism (AHT) has strong potential due to its rich traditional agriculture, biodiversity, and cultural heritage, but it remains underdeveloped because of weak integration between agriculture, culture, and tourism, along with gaps in planning, infrastructure, and stakeholder coordination. The study aims to develop a spatial planning framework for AHT by analyzing spatial characteristics, stakeholder perspectives, and existing planning gaps.

The research is based on reviewing key concepts such as agricultural heritage, agro-heritage tourism, and global recognition systems like GIAHS, GI tags, and Intangible Cultural Heritage, which support preservation and economic value creation. It identifies that effective AHT planning must consider both spatial indicators (physical, ecological, cultural, environmental, and social factors like terrain, biodiversity, land use, water systems, and infrastructure) and stakeholder indicators (community welfare, governance, education, health, accessibility, and economic benefits).

Conclusion

In this study, agro-heritage tourism is examined with respect to its spatial and stakeholder aspects. The findings of this study highlight that for effective agro-heritage tourism systems, it is crucial to ensure that there are good landscape quality, agro-biodiversity, cultural traditions, and climate-resilient agriculture. However, it is equally crucial that there is effective spatial asset development; otherwise, it will be difficult to ensure sustainability. Also, it is proposed that by integrating spatial and stakeholder aspects, it is possible to develop a multidimensional spatial planning framework that could be used by Panchayats or other regional planning organizations to ensure that agro-heritage tourism is promoted effectively. It is crucial that sustainability of tourism is achieved by balancing landscape characteristics and governance systems. Although it is essentially a secondary data study, it is proposed that it could be used as a basis for future empirical validation.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Milna Jose. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.